So I watched the documentary Jesus Camp tonight. It was excellent, but it raised a lot of questions for me. My biggest concern was that I actually am one of them. For like, the first half hour of the movie, I was in agreement with everything that was said and done. Well, except for their insistence that evolution is a lie. To be honest, I do believe that God created humans, and they didn't just evolve. But part of my faith is believing in science as well, and knowing that faith and science can work together.
I agreed with many things in the movie. The little girl who worked up her courage to give someone a tract; that was touching to me. Sharing your faith is difficult, especially the way the she did it. She risked ridicule to share a message of love and grace. That's pretty awesome.
I also agree that we need to be passionate about our beliefs. Revelations warns us against being lukewarm. Unfortunately, the things that the people in this movie were passionate about were abortion and homosexuality. Why do those have to be the two big issues? Why can't it be things like social justice, poverty, and the environment? Those are things that Jesus cared about, and we should care as well. And we should care enough to be ordinary radicals for those causes, as I'm sure Shane Claiborne would agree.
Another thing that was a big deal in the movie was sin and the devil. Now, these are definitely not popular topics. They are often glossed over at a lot of the nontraditional, nondenominational churches. But without sin, we just have that cheap grace that Shane Claiborne talks about. (Sorry for all the Shane references; we're reading his book in small group.) So even though sin isn't fun to talk about, it shouldn't be ignored. We do need to acknowledge our sins and repent of them. There was one scene where the camp leader was talking about sin starting out like a cute little baby lion, but how then it turns into a big lion we can't control. It's a good analogy; temptation is everywhere, and sin can start out small but quickly become huge and out of control. And, (I'm going to go further and sound even crazier), Satan is definitely alive and well in our world. We can't deny the evil that exists. We are constantly tempted by him, and sadly, there are many times when he wins the battle. But never the war.
Now, there were definitely things I didn't like about the movie. Some of the scenes were just a little too intense. Like the little girl saying that God doesn't come to churches where people worship quietly. And the kids sobbing with guilt over their sins. The woman in charge of this camp took guilt to a whole new level (and I'm Lutheran!). It was more like shame and manipulation. Also, when she started yelling about Harry Potter and how warlocks are not heroes, and in the Old Testament, he would have been executed... not cool. And when the mom who was home-schooling her kids taught them that global warming is a big lie- it was disturbing that people's thinking could be so distorted.
But there were just enough things in this movie to make me worry that maybe I am a crazy fundamentalist Christian. Maybe I should go to Jesus Camp next year...
I agreed with many things in the movie. The little girl who worked up her courage to give someone a tract; that was touching to me. Sharing your faith is difficult, especially the way the she did it. She risked ridicule to share a message of love and grace. That's pretty awesome.
I also agree that we need to be passionate about our beliefs. Revelations warns us against being lukewarm. Unfortunately, the things that the people in this movie were passionate about were abortion and homosexuality. Why do those have to be the two big issues? Why can't it be things like social justice, poverty, and the environment? Those are things that Jesus cared about, and we should care as well. And we should care enough to be ordinary radicals for those causes, as I'm sure Shane Claiborne would agree.
Another thing that was a big deal in the movie was sin and the devil. Now, these are definitely not popular topics. They are often glossed over at a lot of the nontraditional, nondenominational churches. But without sin, we just have that cheap grace that Shane Claiborne talks about. (Sorry for all the Shane references; we're reading his book in small group.) So even though sin isn't fun to talk about, it shouldn't be ignored. We do need to acknowledge our sins and repent of them. There was one scene where the camp leader was talking about sin starting out like a cute little baby lion, but how then it turns into a big lion we can't control. It's a good analogy; temptation is everywhere, and sin can start out small but quickly become huge and out of control. And, (I'm going to go further and sound even crazier), Satan is definitely alive and well in our world. We can't deny the evil that exists. We are constantly tempted by him, and sadly, there are many times when he wins the battle. But never the war.
Now, there were definitely things I didn't like about the movie. Some of the scenes were just a little too intense. Like the little girl saying that God doesn't come to churches where people worship quietly. And the kids sobbing with guilt over their sins. The woman in charge of this camp took guilt to a whole new level (and I'm Lutheran!). It was more like shame and manipulation. Also, when she started yelling about Harry Potter and how warlocks are not heroes, and in the Old Testament, he would have been executed... not cool. And when the mom who was home-schooling her kids taught them that global warming is a big lie- it was disturbing that people's thinking could be so distorted.
But there were just enough things in this movie to make me worry that maybe I am a crazy fundamentalist Christian. Maybe I should go to Jesus Camp next year...
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